Comments Off on Five Reasons Why You Should Transfer Your Homes Movies to DVD

It’s always fun to pull out the old home videos and reminisce, especially on occasions when the family’s together. What wonderful moments to see and experience again your children’s first steps and first words. Then there are the videos full of laughs, your kids shenanigans and even some of your own caught on tape.

VHS-DVD (Photo credit: HawkinsThiel)

Those home movies are great! Unfortunately, every time you pull them out they seem to be a bit more worse off than the last time you watched them. Even more unfortunate is when you pull that one special video that you hold in reserve for special times and you find that it no longer works.

Don’t let that happen to you! Transferring those old home movies to DVD will save you a lot of heartache.

Technology – Technology is always changing. VHS/VCR tapes and players are a thing of the past. VCR’s are less common in homes, as most people have traded their VCR for DVD players. Even in the marketplace it is becoming more difficult to find players for this kind of media.

Heat & Moisture – Heat and moisture can cause mold on VHS tapes, and both are great enemies of VHS. This form of media is not designed to be long lasting and even kept in ideal conditions may only last a maximum of 15 years.

Age – Home videos are far too precious to lose. However, that is what happens with many even when you do take good care of your videos. Additionally, each time a VHS tape is played the tape is run across a head to be played, and this in term deteriorates the tape, making each consecutive playback weaker.

Convenience – Most VHS tapes hold up to 2 hours of recording time, however they take up more space and cannot be easily copied to share with others, unless you have a dual deck unit or 2 sets of equipment in order to play back and record at the same time. Whereas, with DVD’s, you still have the same 2 hours of video and they are convenient in that you can make copies much more easily without the need of extra equipment.

Storage – VHS tapes are bulky and cumbersome in this day and time. Some people have so many home movies and videos that they literally have shelves and shelves covering every wall just to have storage space for their videos. However, with DVD’s you can store your entire collection more easily in binders and leave your walls free for other things.

One great feature of transferring your videos to DVD, is that DVD’s have the option of splitting your videos down into scenes. This allows you to take a variety of different scenes from varying times and place them onto one DVD so you can have them in one place to choose from – such as a synopsis of birthday events or special holidays over the years.

Just remember that over time videotapes lose quality, and may eventually be unwatchable due to deterioration, or even tape failure. The best way to preserve those memories is to transfer your home movies to DVD. If you have not converted your old home movies to DVD, it is possible that your tapes may already be seeing the effects of deterioration. So, don’t delay any longer, save those precious memories and transfer your home movies to DVD today.

Video 2 DVD Transfers is part of a large production house with more than 25 years’ experience in transferring peoples treasured memories. From old cine film to modern recordable mini DVD’s we have copied more than 350,000 hours of family footage.

For those whose family memories are on cine film, Regular 8, Super 8 or even 16mm, we can produce archive quality transfers on to DVD or other digital media. The days of setting up a projector and screen are long gone. Our transfer systems are High Quality and are not based on out dated projector technology. Our website http://www.video2dvdtransfers.co.uk/k offers a clear and simple pricing structure.

Researching your genealogy can be a rewarding experience. Truly digging into your family’s background can help you feel more connected to your own roots, your existing relatives, and history itself. Finding out what your ancestors did makes you own life feel like part of an extended narrative that ends with your own family and will surge onward into the future. Extensive modern record keeping and the advent of the Internet has made it easier than ever before for almost anyone to do genealogy research themselves or as part of a team. People doing genealogy research in the future may well have databases of information right at their hands for easy research.

Unfortunately, genealogy research can be a complicated project. It is common for people to have to consult multiple sources, particularly when working with potentially less trustworthy historical records. Researchers can also feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that they need to find in order to complete their searches to a satisfactory extent. Genealogy research should be treated like any other substantial research project: researchers should keep detailed records of what they find, what they want to find, and update them with the addition of each new piece of data. The value of record keeping should never be underestimated by anyone embarking on such an endeavor as detailed genealogy research.

Research logs should have a number of important pieces of information. They should include bibliographies of sources as a start, but they should also help researchers organize their information adequately. Researchers can list what has been found and what needs to be found, and they can try to sort out new and better strategies for their in-depth searches for documents. They should organize specific records of specific ancestors, goals for particular places of research and points in research, and which facts correspond to which documents. Making hard copies or scanned copies of particular documents and filing them according to which questions they answer or which ancestors they correspond to can also work wonders in avoiding losing genealogy research.

After viewing sources in libraries or similar institutions, it is a good idea to record the item’s document number. Researchers should also describe the results of the search in depth, as well as just how much of the item and items like it were perused for information – researchers should mention whether or not they thoroughly read the documents in case they need to revisit them later. Even recording information that was unhelpful to your search can still be valuable, if only as a means of avoiding searching along the same pathway again. Even missing one document during the search can make for a very difficult process later, for any diligent researcher. We are able to do genealogy research because our ancestors kept relatively good records, from census records to personal ones, and we can see them today. Applying the same principles to your own research can hopefully yield satisfactory results in the same vein.

There comes a time in most genealogical searches when the answers no longer reside in your home country. Immigration and migration have been common occurrences throughout human history, which means your search for a complete family tree will likely hit some snags along the way. The good news is there are some valuable tools for searching international records and as long as you understand the potential for mistakes, you can go a long way toward filling in the blanks.

Example of 1891 Census in England and Wales Source: The National Archives, London (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Census

Most countries of the world have compiled census data over the years, though some such as Algeria and Afghanistan have only been compiling data for the last few decades. Many more, however, have been keeping at least minimal records since the late 1800’s and before. One thing you should keep in mind is the fact that all census takers have one thing in common, they are human! This means there is a margin of error you will likely have to deal with.

Tips for Searching:

Following Leads

Which international records do you need to search for your ancestors? As you can imagine there are millions of names listed in these resources and searching through a random database on a hope and a prayer would be the proverbial needle in a haystack scenario. First, you should begin to establish some kind of trail, in other words, your great, great grandfather Joseph Smith’s trail goes cold, but you know from local records or stories from the family that he faced prison time in England. You also know the last records of him are from 1862, which means he will not be found among the records for the Australian penal colonies, because the last convicts were transported there in 1859.

Family Members

There are two things you should know when it comes to talking to family members about genealogy. Number one, many of them may lack your enthusiasm for the project! If your aunts and uncles have begun avoiding your phone calls, this is a hint. Number two, when you do find a source that is willing to talk, pay attention! There is nothing better than first hand information handed down from the elders in your family.

Online Resources

Genealogy is easier today than it has ever been, thanks to the internet. There are literally millions of records available online, and many more than that available in hard copy. Several international records sites offer-photocopied records upon request and there are of course the paid ancestry research websites. The best advice for utilizing this resource is to start with the free services first, gather as much information as humanly possible before determining which online subscription service will best serve your needs. No point in paying for a service that does not go back far enough or has no records from your current country of research now is there?

Every year, World Wars I and II get further and further away. They seem more and more like part of the distant past and less like an unfortunate part of our own time. Still, many people alive today have grandparents, great-grandparents, and even possibly parents who served in World War I. Looking for military heroes in our past keeps us connected to these tumultuous global events personally, even if we never experienced them. The British ArmyWW1 service records from 1914-1920 are available for those who are interested enough to learn in detail how their personal histories were connected to broader, global history.

British trench near the Albert–Bapaume road at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hundreds of thousands of men voluntarily joined the war effort in the earliest stages of WW1. The extensive British propaganda effort, a terrible job market, and general feelings of cultural malaise all contributed to the mass enlistment, in addition to the noble ideas of serving one’s country. Propaganda used many tactics, including shaming, appeals to fear, and appeals to the conscience. The Somme campaign and its horrifying 500,000 casualties contributed to falling volunteer soldier rates. In 1916, conscription began, first for single men, and then expanding to include all men aged 18 to 41 as possible draftees. As such, WW1 directly affected multitudes of families throughout the United Kingdom and beyond, and many families today would have ancestors who were directly or indirectly affected by it. Women were also able to join the war effort in a non-combatant role as nurses or cooks. Military heroes need not be limited to the soldiers.

Social changes occurred in the wake of World War One, in recognition of the service military heroes performed. Millions of soldiers left for the battlegrounds unable to vote, and the Representation of the People Act 1918 changed all that. Men over the age of 21 who were householders were granted suffrage. The hypocrisy of denying the right to vote in a democracy for those who had risked their lives defending it was untenable. Women over 30 who owned certain property were also granted suffrage. The United Kingdom rallying around its servicemen and women was but a minor part in the tremendous aftermath of the war. Official reports indicate that there were over nine hundred thousand casualties, including killed in action, dying of wounds, taken as prisoners of war, or missing in action. Uncovering the legacies of these military heroes would be a daunting but rewarding task.

Good military records in the 1910s have made ancestry detection easier than it has been for other times and places. Tracing your ancestry to the very early past is very difficult. People from certain socioeconomic backgrounds may not have left very good records. There was no assurance that everyone would have birth records until the early to mid-twentieth century. Finding ancestors in the military can be a direct route to finding many of your ancestors, given the stability and detail of military records. Their accomplishments will not be forgotten by anyone.

One very important tool in your genealogical research is the census; however, they can also be problematic. When researching your lineage it is important to establish when and where a specific relative lived, which is one way the census is helpful. Yet, you have to understand that these records were compiled by other human beings and are not always error free.

Front page of the 2011 census form. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pros:

United Kingdom census results, particularly those dated 1841 and later are very valuable tools in that they were the first to list all members of a household. Previous census would only list the name of the head of the household, ignoring children, spouses and other relatives that might live under the same roof.

Census data is often considered the foundation of genealogical research and depending upon the era in which it was taken can contain a great deal of information. Let’s say you have traced the movements of a particular ancestor and you are pretty sure where they lived, but you cannot find property records to support your conclusions. A census of the area could tell you where they lived and even where they were born (if this is missing from your research).

Cons:

Many census data was often copied several times for different organizations, which increases the margin of potential error. At the end of the day, a fallible human being was the enumerator and there are bound to be a few mistakes.

What You Should Know

When it comes to researching census data you will want to become familiar with the manner in which they were taken and the meaning behind certain abbreviations. For example, in the 1841 UK census professions would be abbreviated, some examples include:

Ag Lab- agricultural laborer

FS- Female servant

Sh- shopman

M- Manufacturer

m- maker (boots etc…)

Conclusion

A census can be very important to your research, filling in the blanks and even helping you locate a particular ancestor who seems to have fallen off the map. That being said you have to be aware of their limitations and propensity for mistakes or errors. Utilizing census data is not difficult but may require a little reading between the lines, so to speak. As of 2012 the UK census data is complete and searchable from 1841-1911.